SPECIAL A WAKE UP CALL REPORT by Helen O'Daly RN

TH E NEWSLETTER OF THE AMERICAN RADIOLOGICAL NURSES ASSOCIATI ON

July, 2001

VOLUME 6

NUMBER3

SPECIAL

REPORT

RADIOLOGY

NURSE

HELPLINE

starts on p. 5

ASSESSMENT

TOOLS

AVAILABLE¡¤¡¤

see "Try This", p. 3

THE BEAT GOES

ON - "CRN GOTTA HA VE IT"

seep. 7

A WAKE UP CALL

by Helen O'Daly RN

There is a national nursing shortage . Docs that come as a shock to you? It is the

reason why your staff positions remain unfilled. It is a fact of life that nurs es have

a physically and mentally demanding job. Before I go much fu rther I want to say

that this sho1tage is not affecting Minnesota very much. In collecting data for this

issue of RN N!'ws I noticed material submitted by several Rad iology Nurses from

Minnesota. Out of curiosity I took out my 2000-2001 ARNA Mem bership

Directory and counted the members from Minnesota - 48' I am surprised. I live

in the most heavily populated state in the nation and we do not have q ui te that

many members in the New Jersey Chapter. Now I must get to my po int - I wan t to

ackn owledge the e-mails I received from India S. Luke (one of the Minnesota

Radi o logy Nurses) who has helped me bring myself up to date on some impo rtant

issues which arc mentioned in this article.

Allegedly the shortage exists because of several factors . One is the lack of appeal

of nu rs ing as a profession to younger people. Why should they want to work in a

field with such demands and non-commensurate compensation? They can go to

school for less time and start in a computer related field earn ing more from the

outset, without the risks of exposure to disease and musculoskeletal injuries. A

second factor is the numhcr of working nurses who entered the fie ld during the

60's and early 70 's. They comprise the "Baby Boorners", a large group that

entered the workforce, many of who did so because of the Women's Lihcration

movement. There has been a tremendous decline 111 the number of newly

registered nurses in the past I0 to 15 years. A third factor is the impending

retirement of these nurses that will begin in the next few years . The 20-year-old

nurse who began working in 1965 will turn 65 in 20 I 0. T hat sou nds to me like

retirement is w ithin reach but it can be a mixed blessing - who will be there to take

care of the elderly population when we arc gone from the workforce? More

importantly, who is going to take care of us?

I have been chagrined at the lack of media coverage of this problem but it is

hcginning to catch up now . Just yesterday ou r local newspaper printed a "Letter to

the Editor" from a "recent college graduate", a nurse whose aim was to educate the

public about the shortage and related issues (she concentrated on how in the life

cycle we ALL will '¡¤pass through the hands of a nurse'') . Incredibly, facing this

letter on the opposite page was a commentary o n how the state university has failed

to do its part rn promoting nurse education ("currently, nursmg students arc

crowded into a small home on a residential

contin11 1'd 011 I'¡¤ 2

RN NEWS

VOLUM E 6, NUMBER 1

PRESIDENT'S CORNER

In the mi dst of th e sunrn1cr mon th s, many of us may be enjoying some special time w ith

o ur fami li es and fri ends doing all th ose g reat summer activit ies like boati ng, hi kin g, trips

to the beach or just pla in relax ing in your backyard - or someo ne else 's ! For those of us

chancre

to our

in the hea lthcare fiel d, the summe r months also often bri rw si o11ifico11t

.

0

wo rk envi ron ments : new res idents, staff movi ng to new pos itions , new attendin gs ,

sc heduled vac ations that req uire cove ring those who arc off doin g a ll those great

act ivit ies 1just ment ioned while you are NOT!

Th is reall y all boils down to the subject of teamwork. It is truly the essence of how our

de partments func ti on if we arc to approach the positi ve pat ien t outcomes fo r which we

strive . In any given week, the radiology nursing staff may wo rk w ith many dUfercnt

te ams with in their own department (CT, MRI, IR, UIS, Nuclear Medicine, etc .) and

c onsequentl y must develop an unde rstanding of the team dynamics that influence the

o utc o me of patient care. Very few teams function ident ic all y so, w ithout consciously

thinking about it, you arc probab ly us ing an arma ment of cop ing ski ll s to contin ue to

coord inate care within teams and for the b roader scope o f the Radiology team .

As new tea m members arrive, the re is most certainly a learnin g curve both w ith regard to

sk ill s, both those they bring with them and those that need to be learned, and, o nce again,

fo r hoth the new and not-so-new membe rs to deve lop an un derstand in g of each othe rs '

professional skills as well as their int erpersonal skills . In any team sett ing, the memhers'

goa ls must be to achi ew a com mon objective and, in the process, exchange experi ences

and ideas, while res pect in g each o ther's contrihutions in the achievement of that

objective . Team members must comm it to part ici pating in discussions by learning to

e ffectivel y communicate with each othe r even though they have d ifferent duties and

func tions and may he at different levels w ith in the organizati on .

Beyond th e concept of the teams wi thi n which we work eve ryd ay, is the realit y of our

ARNA team . Your comm itment as a member of ARNA dec lares your desire to he a part

o f th is team . We all come from varied backgrounds bot h personally and professional ly,

but it is through the cnrnmo n bo nd of our profess ional organization that we a lert the

heal thcare professional world of our ded icat ion to our missi on and goals . ARNA's team

has had a profoun d effect on the practice of rad iological nursing in the past twenty years

and we still have much wo rk to do . Re proud o f you r membe rship in a team that

promotes the highest quality pati ent care in tic diagnostic and therapeutic imaging

environment'

~

~

Col leen M . Sasso, RN, RSN, CRN

P res ident , ARNA

PS . If you would li ke to vo lu nteer to work at the national level of you r ARNA team,

please contact th e ARNA office.

HAVE AGREAT SUMMER!!!

PAGE 2

WAKE UP CALL

cont 'dfro111 p. l

New

street

1n

Brunswick" (The Home

N e ws

T ribu ne,

East

Brunswick, New Jersey,

July 8, 2001, pp . A IOA l l ).

I know th is

si tuation wou ld be a

T he

turnoff for me !

com m en tary went on to

mention

an

expected

sh o rta ge

of

17 ,000

nurses in New Jersey " in

a few years".

After reading t his article,

you may be surprised, as

I was, to le arn that

several state legis latures

have been "workin g"

since J997 on legislation

to

add ress

work

co nditi ons

th at

have

r esulted

from

the

shortage, e. g., mandatory

ove rti me has beco me a

big co ncern. The w heels

of p rog ress turn ever so

slowly. Some of these

states arc Massach usetts,

O r egon,

Tennessee,

Wash in gton, C alifornia,

Co nn ect icut ,

Indiana,

M aine, Maryland, New

Jersey,

Nevada,

New

York and West Virgin ia.

1 looked in to the status of

some of these bil ls.

What I saw w as th at they

were tabled in m o st

cases,

or

vetoed

continued on p. 6

VOLUME 6. NUMl3ER 1

RN NEWS

RADIOLOGY NURSE Helpline

(continued from page 5)

Deep sedation in Radiology - a question and

some ad vice

Conscious sedation in the Radiology Dept/Endo

Oept/Cath Lab is very popular. Th e goal is to do

ou r procedures and make our patients as

comfortable as possible.

The one aspect of

sedation we may be overlooking is the ability for

the patient to go into a deep sedation, or to

purposefully give sedation to achieve a deep

sedation. We as Rad iology nu rses need to be

careful that we fo llow hospital policy on deep

sedation and if you r hospital does not have a

deep sedation policy then I would recommend

one be added. The anesthesiology dept in your

facil ity ultimately has the final say in what is

acceptable in you r area, but be ca reful that your

nursing license allows you to do what is asked of

you. JCAHO has guidelines to follow.

We

should not allow ourselves to practice unsafely.

In some of our cases a nurse anesthetist may be

needed to achieve the goal for sedation for our

patients. I would like to hear from you as to the

practice of deep sedation in your facility . We are

currently updating our policy to even cover deep

sedation. It is one thing to accidentally achieve

deep sedation but to purposefully give deep

sedation is a question we need to ask ourselvesls thi s safe for ou r patients without anesthesia

personnel? Thanks for your input.

FROM THE

EDITOR'S DESK

!\s you read the qu ................
................

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